a short note recognizing a source of information or of a quoted passage

"the student's essay failed to list several important citations"; "the acknowledgments are usually printed at the front of a book"; "the article includes mention of similar clinical cases"

acknowledgment, acknowledgement(noun)

a statement acknowledging something or someone

"she must have seen him but she gave no sign of acknowledgment"; "the preface contained an acknowledgment of those who had helped her"

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acknowledgment(Noun)

The act of acknowledging; admission; avowal; owning; confession.

acknowledgment(Noun)

The act of owning or recognizing in a particular character or relationship; recognition as regards the existence, authority, truth, or genuineness.

acknowledgment(Noun)

An award or other expression or token of appreciation.

acknowledgment(Noun)

An owning with gratitude of a benefit or an obligation (as in "acknowledgment" of a favor).

acknowledgment(Noun)

A message from the addressee informing the originator that the originator's communication has been received and understood, as a wedding invitation's acknowledgment.

acknowledgment(Noun)

A response (ACK) sent by a receiver to indicate successful receipt of a transmission.

See Wikipedia article on transmission

acknowledgment(Noun)

An owning as genuine or valid; an avowing or admission in legal form (as in "acknowledgment of a deed").

acknowledgment(Noun)

A formal statement or document recognizing the fulfillment or execution of a legal requirement or procedure.

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Acknowledgment(noun)

the act of acknowledging; admission; avowal; owning; confession

Acknowledgment(noun)

the act of owning or recognized in a particular character or relationship; recognition as regards the existence, authority, truth, or genuineness

Acknowledgment(noun)

the owning of a benefit received; courteous recognition; expression of thanks

Acknowledgment(noun)

something given or done in return for a favor, message, etc

Acknowledgment(noun)

a declaration or avowal of one's own act, to give it legal validity; as, the acknowledgment of a deed before a proper officer. Also, the certificate of the officer attesting such declaration

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Acknowledgment

In the creative arts and scientific literature, an acknowledgment is an expression of gratitude for assistance in creating an original work.
Receiving credit by way of acknowledgment rather than authorship indicates that the person or organization did not have a direct hand in producing the work in question, but may have contributed funding, criticism, or encouragement to the author. Various schemes exist for classifying acknowledgments; Cronin et. al give the following six categories:
⁕moral support
⁕financial support
⁕editorial support
⁕presentational support
⁕instrumental/technical support
⁕conceptual support, or peer interactive communication
Apart from citation, which is not usually considered to be an acknowledgment, acknowledgment of conceptual support is widely considered to be the most important for identifying intellectual debt. Some acknowledgments of financial support, on the other hand, may simply be legal formalities imposed by the granting institution.
There have been some attempts to extract bibliometric indices from the acknowledgments section of research papers in order to evaluate the impact of the acknowledged individuals, sponsors and funding agencies.